Thought Question #2 (Analytical Thinking Skills, Thermodynamics)
If you are standing (or sitting, fighting in hand-to-hand combat, etc.) next to a machine emitting microwaves tuned so that they excite water molecules outside of the machine, causing them to enter the vapor phase, wouldn’t that cause your blood (and other parts of you) to literally boil? Keep in mind that the microwaves are traveling away from the machine, not being kept inside it as with our conventional microwave ovens.
posted by Joel @ 12:05 AM
3 Comments:
Aviation Week's latest issue (13 June 2005) just happens to contain an article about HPM (High Power Microwave) weapons. Raytheon is developing a system to protect commercial airliners from shoulder fired missiles with an HPM system. The ground-based system will be built around airports for the bargain price of $25 million per airport. Raytheon is so confident in this system that it is investing its own R&D money. Getting to the question now, the article mentions that the Marine Corps is working on an antipersonnal HPM system. The article quotes Raytheon's directed energy program manager program director: "Active Denial [the Marine system] will open people's eyes to speed of light devices. It's a compelling notion because now you don't have to shoot everybody." In the Marine system, "microwave pulses heat body water to the point of pain, which drives the attackers off" (117).
It seems that someone has out-thought Joel in futuristic thinking. Just one more reason to read Aviation Week and Space Technology.
"to the point of pain"
yeah, right
(mercer)
I asked my physics professor (who has purple hair) about this question and he responded that you would most likely die of being cooked or of damage to internal organs and that your blood would most likely coagulate instead of boil were such a situation to occur.
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